Hard work puts Burner over the top

The numbers are not yet completely tallied, but later this month Darcy Burner will report over $600,000 cash on hand at the end of the 4th quarter, putting her near the top of Democratic challengers nationwide, and about a half-million dollars ahead of last cycle’s breakneck pace. The campaign tells me that her totals for the Oct-Nov period will top the $306,000 she reported for Jul-Sep, a quarter in which she benefited from an unprecedented $125,000 national netroots drive. Of course, we don’t know Dave Reichert’s numbers, but I’d wager Darcy has now outraised the incumbent in each of the past four quarters, a nearly unprecedented accomplishment.

I suppose Darcy’s fundraising prowess is no longer the news it was last time around, a race in which the then first-time candidate surprised the media and political establishment by putting up record numbers, and coming within a silver hair of defeating “The Sheriff.” But those who dismiss these early numbers as just an inconsequential horse race willfully ignore the important information they tell us about the candidates and the race ahead.

The most obvious conclusions to draw from the 2007 fundraising totals are that the 2008 race for Washington’s 8th Congressional District remains extremely tight, and that contrary to the prediction of naysayers, support for electing Darcy (and defeating Reichert) has grown, not waned, since November 2006. While Reichert has relied mostly on large donors and PACs (not to mention creative accounting) to pad his totals thus far, the overwhelming majority of Darcy’s money has come in the form of relatively small, individual contributions. This not only suggests that Darcy has significantly greater fundraising upside in the quarters to come, it also demonstrates the kind of broad, grassroots appeal that can translate directly into votes come election day.

But I think that the biggest takeaway from the the money race is that Darcy is just a damn hard worker. With Darcy surpassing her goal of raising $25,000 over the final 72 hours of 2007, it would be easy to pen a headline like, “Burner rides late fundraising surge to record numbers,” but that would be misleading. Darcy didn’t just ride the surge, she created it. In that context, Darcy’s lead in the money race doesn’t just predict how the two candidates will perform over the final nine months of the campaign, but how they would perform in office, if elected. I have many complaints about how my friends in the traditional media (particularly the mean-spirited liars on the Seattle Times editorial board) presented Darcy to voters in 2006, but there is no question they completely overlooked her extraordinary work ethic. That Darcy has run this hard for this long demonstrates that she is willing and able to devote the kind of energy and commitment her district deserves. If elected, Darcy Burner would simply work harder than Dave Reichert, and that’s a message voters should hear.

I gave some money to Darcy even though I don’t live in her district because 8th C.D. voters deserve a better congressman than what they’ve got.

Besides, the GOP is going to be in a minority in Congress for years (if not decades) to come, and as a member of a party that will hold no committee chairmanships and have no influence over legislation, Reichert will not be in a position to do anything for his district.

It’s time for 8th C.D. voters to elect a member of the majority party who will be able to bring home the bacon and get things done for the district.

Why not? The Democratic primary is merely a beauty contest — all of the Democratic delegates will be chosen in the Feb. 8 caucuses. But the GOP will choose half of its delegates in the primary.

Besides, I’m a Republican at heart, from way back — I was a Goldwaterite in ‘64. And, even today, I still behave like a Republican. Old habits are hard to break!

As none of the leading Democratic candidates are good debaters, it’s important we help the GOP select a candidate who will stand out in the presidential debates like a wart on a wild boar’s nose. Huckabee is the man!

Looking forward to the fall debates, I want to hear Gov. Huckabee tell the American people about his plan to abolish science education and force America’s public schools to teach creationism to our kids so that our future doctors, biologists, scientists, and engineers will think mutating viruses are supernatural punishment for immoral behavior.

I want to hear Gov. Huckabee explain that little girls deserve to be raped if they’re related to Bill Clinton, and it’s okay for little boys to lynch dogs in Boy Scout Camp if they’re related to Mike Huckabee.

I want to hear Gov. Huckabee tell the American people he wants to replace the progressive income tax with a 40% sales tax.

I want to hear Gov. Huckabee tell a worldwide TV audience in the hundreds of millions that George W. Bush’s foreign policy is all wrong — that he should have used nukes from the get-go.

Yep, Mike Huckabee is the guy I want to carry the GOP banner in November. He’s the perfect representative for that party and its adherents — he’s as stupid, ignorant, crazy, dishonest, and evil as they are!

And, best of all, he’s an Arkansas cracker. That’ll play just right in America’s urban areas where the 2008 election will be decided. He might even take all 22 GOP senatorial candidates down with him! Let us hope so.

In summary, I’m voting for Mike Huckabee in the Feb. 19 primary because he’s the best GOP candidate that Democrats could choose.

It’s time to change the reporting process for Congressional candidates from quarterly reporting to monthly reporting. Voters deserve more up to date information than once every 3 months.

Washington State requires monthly reporting for candidates running for the Legislature and for statewide offices. Candidates like Darcy could both keep the public better informed by releasing monthly reports and start a push for monthly reporting by all candidates.

Darcy could show she is for more openness and accountability in campaign financing and ask that her opponent also release monthly figures.

@3: RR – I don’t think Huckabee will win the primary and be the GOP standard bearer in the general election. He has said and done enough stupid things that he would be the perfect candidate for the Dems. However, I think slick Mitt will end up winning. Guliani is fading fast and McCain is so old that momentum is something that helps him get up in the morning. Mitt will be tough in the general election because he can totally revamp his opinions back to when he governor of Massachusetts. He can change any position he has just to make himself more electable. Ambition and money seem to be the only constants with Mitt. Any of the leading Democratic candidates would be in a better position on the war, the economy, health care and jobs than Mitt.

After Burner loses this time, do you think she’ll do everyone a favor and admit it’s just not going to happen? Or, as I suspect, will she immediately begin running again, collecting money and raising the hopes of good Democrats who, frankly, should know better.

Yeah, it’s such a losing game to run a candidate who can come out of nowhere, match the incumbent’s funding, and lose by only a 1.5% swing. And now that she’s outraising Dave Muscleshirt by a mile you can just tell how bad her candidacy really is.

@5 You clearly haven’t been paying attention to recent polling data. Iowa is shaping up as a Huckabee blowout — Romney could suffer a 2-to-1 defeat there. And since Romney put an awful lot of his eggs into Iowa’s first-in-the-nation basket, that would severely damage his credibility. If Huckabee then went on to defeat Romney in New Hampshire, it would almost certainly be over for the Mittster. That doesn’t mean Huckabee would win the nomination, of course. Huckabee doesn’t have money, doesn’t have an organization, and he’s likely to get crushed in the next round — a series of eastern seaboard primaries. So, Huckabee’s role in this campaign probably is that of a spoiler. If he takes Romney out of the race, and Giuliani also falters, that could throw the doors wide open for a McCain resurgency. And, who knows, it’s not totally out of the question that Huckabee could beat them all. If his campaign appears to be catching fire, money and political pros will flock to him, as surely as shit attracts flies. At the very least, Huckabee is livening up the GOP race … and he could prove to be a game-changer.

@10 What govt cheese? Where is this govt cheese I keep hearing about? Not that I’m interested in cheese, but some of my mice friends are. If anyone knows where the cheese locker is, Republican rats do.

Goldy Says: “Of course, we don’t know Dave Reichert’s numbers, but I’d wager Darcy has now outraised the incumbent in each of the past four quarters, a nearly unprecedented accomplishment.”

Well yes Goldy, of course it would be an uprecedented accomplishment, IT ALSO DIDN’T HAPPEN. Darcy Burner as of 9/30/2007 (the latest reporting) has only raised 70% of the money Dave Reichert has raised. You see we do know Reicherts numbers, they are public informatiom as are Burners.

Re: 17. Absolutely I do, read Goldys post, 25% of the money (according to goldy, which according to his latest mathematics makes me skeptical. came from a national net roots campaign). Godly doesn’t live in her district and I doubt anyone else on this blog does.

The point is S Jew is that Goldy was either to uncurious to check the real facts, or was just lying. I don’t think he is a liar but the facts speak for them selves.

Re: 17, what are you talking about playing fair? Goldy said that he would wager that Burner beat Reichert in all four quarters. It’s no wonder Goldy is poor and has to ask for handouts if he makes those kind of bets. All he has to do is look at the FEC website. How dumb is he anyways?

Re: 21. Hey Fred. How does the converstation go from raising more money to more cash on hand? I would assume that if a candidate is raising money they are doing it to spend it, not raise a bank account. What kind of silly question is that?

David Reichert, a popular and telegenic former sheriff in King County has agreed to work as the Washington State director the Republican Party’s Phoenix Project.

The project, co founded by Warren Biuffet, Gov. Schwartenegger, and ex Gov. Whitman, has galvanized the remains of the Republican party to reorganize itself for the 2010 election.

As a first step, Mr. Buffet has joined with al Jahzeera to purchase the MSNBC cable network to build a centrist rival to Fox News. The network will be called The Word. Tentively, Sherrif Reichert and another former Congressman, Jo Scarborough, will host a new evening show to run at the same time as Hannity and Combs on Fox. Unlike the famous Fox diatribe, the program on Word News will consist of Scarborough and Reicher ganging up on far left or far right guests. The show will feature regular guests inckuding Michael Medved, Ralph Nader, Naom Chomsky, Daniel Pipes, and Sheikh Alaweed.

That would be the handouts you get from the gov’t. It’s basically slang for people that do nothing but take and not anny into the commonwealth. That’d be you. Hope this simplified explanation is understandable to your tiny mind. Good luck.

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